Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - News

News

LAS VEGAS – IPC is requesting abstracts for Apex, which will take place March 31-April 2 in Las Vegas.

Expert presentations are being sought on all relevant design, PCB fabrication and manufacturing topics. Submissions in the areas of new materials and environmental concerns are encouraged. The committee will choose abstracts that describe significant results from experiments, emphasize new techniques or discuss trends and test results.

The deadline for abstracts is July 18.

For more information, visit www.GoIPCShows.org/CFP.

To ask questions about conference participation, contact GregMunie@ipc.org or ToyaRichardson@ipc.org.

For information on teaching a course, contact MichelleMichelotti@ipc.org.

BRIDGEWATER, MA – Chase Corp. today reported net income of $3.2 million for its May quarter, up 12% over last year. Revenues fell 2% to $33.9 million from the prior year period.

NEWARK, NY – EMS firm IEC Electronics Corp. received a $3.7 million order from one of its military and defense customers. Shipments will run from the September quarter through April 2009.

In a statement, chairman W. Barry Gilbert said, “We have a good relationship with this customer. IEC is the exclusive supplier of these products, thus enabling the customer to avoid the uncertainty that can be associated with a new supplier and in turn, allowing us to leverage the experience we have gained from previously building these complex electronics assemblies.”

IEC stressed the latest order is unrelated to a $4.7 million award announced in April, which was for a different program.

ARLINGTON, MA – The holder of a patent-pending self-cleaning squeegee blade arrangement is offering the technology for sale or license.

The technology is said to automatically clean solder paste from squeegee blades to help eliminate buildup, thereby providing improved printing performance while reducing waste, contamination and maintenance.

Interested parties are invited to contact Thomas P. O’Connell, Esq., at 781-643-1845.

EL PASO, TX -- Powell-Mucha Consulting Inc. will present a pair of tutorials focusing on EMS branding and strategic planning at the upcoming SMTA International Conference in Orlando.

PMCI’s new tutorial, “Find It, Book It, Grow It—Optimizing EMS Account Acquisition,” pulls from the principles outlined in president Susan Mucha’s new book, Find It, Book It, Grow It. – A Robust Guide to Account Acquisition in Electronics Manufacturing Services. The tutorial looks at ways to optimize the selling process, better enunciate competitive value propositions and grow accounts over time.

Topics covered include:
• Assessing your business model and developing a value proposition suitable for target markets.
• Shortening the sales cycle through more effective use of sales and marketing resources.
• Integrating the program team into the selling process.
• Developing the most competitive value proposition through better understanding of the selection team.
• Developing long-term business growth plans.

The tutorial will be presented Aug. 21 from 1:30-5:00 p.m.

Mucha will also present, “Identifying EMS Market Trends: Learn to Predict the Future and Help Your Company Lead the Pack,” which discusses ways to create a forward-looking planning environment. The tutorial takes place Aug. 21 from 8:00-11:30 a.m.

Topics covered include:
• Typical cycles which repeat in the EMS industry.
• Key events likely to trigger changes in demand.
• Useful strategic planning tools.
• Creating business models which can readily adapt to changing markets.

The instructor, Susan Mucha, has been involved in marketing EMS services since 1981. For more information visit: http://www.smta.org/smtai/tutorials.cfm#THURSDAY_BI.

PMCI and Circuits Assembly also have jointly organized a Contract Manufacturing Symposium, scheduled for Aug. 20, from 1:30 – 5:00 p.m. The Symposium features six speakers in two sessions titled: Teaming for Efficient Manufacturing and Managing Our Suppliers and Ourselves.

ST. LOUIS -- BAE Systems awarded LaBarge a $2.7 million contract to continue producing the Ethernet switch unit for the A3 Bradley combat systems vehicles.

SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ – R&D Circuits will merge with Anestel Corp., the companies said in a statement. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

TIJUANA – Catalyst Manufacturing Services has opened a contract manufacturing operation in Tijuana and will begin shipping production volumes later this month.

The renovated 60,000 sq. ft. facility will operate as a full-service turnkey operation working with market segments including medical, aerospace, and industrial.

The contract manufacturing company also has locations in Endicott, NY, and Raleigh, NC.

Catalyst offers product design assistance, documentation development, PCB assembly and test, box build, order fulfillment/logistics, and depot repair services.

LYON, FRANCE – 3-D TSV wafers will be shipped in the millions and have the potential to impact as much as 25% of the memory business by 2015, says a new research report.

Excluding memory devices, Yole Developpement’s latest market forecast reveals 3-D TSV wafers could account for more than 6% of the total semiconductor industry by 2015.

Meanwhile, the equipment market for 3-D TSV manufacturing tools will rapidly expand to above $1 billion by 2013.

The research firm says consolidation is taking place in CMOS wafer fabs, with a shift toward a fabless foundry model.

A new infrastructure needs to be developed in the middle segment of the semiconductor industry supply chain, Yole says. New technologies, equipment and advanced materials coming from the front- and back-end worlds are being developed and will give rise to a revival of semiconductor packaging and circuit assembly.

The impetus for 3-D is clear and has not changed much since the technology was introduced into production for MEMS and CMOS image sensors; it is about achieving smaller form factor with increased package densities to meet bandwidth, RF, power consumption performance improvements and further cost reduction, says the firm. In addition, several players are driven by reliability motivations.

WL-CSP CMOS image sensors are poised to leave traditional edge interconnect configurations for “real” 3D-TSV architectures as soon as this year, Yole adds. Vias will be partially or completely filled. Additionally, the number of I/Os will expand to several hundreds of interconnects per chip, with a trend to stack the DSP chips under the image sensor chip itself.

MEMS will benefit from 3-D to combine MEMS with ASIC, while wireless SiPs will combine heterogeneous layers together. The market for 3-D stacked memories is imminent and is primarily driven by RAM-based memories; meanwhile, more Flash memory will be combined within MCP, PoP/SiP packages, cellphone card-slots and SSDs, according to the firm.

The question now is, Who will develop the lowest cost process and take the risk of the huge initial infrastructure investment required first? Going further, logic-based 3-D SOCs are to set to take off in the next two to three years for different applications. This “true” 3-D/IC integration will be achieved through the progressive segregation of several layers: 3-D partitioning of embedded memories, RF, analog and I/Os layers from the logic base chip will be achieved in the most cost-effective manner by reducing overall chip size areas, says Yole.

3-D WLP encapsulation is already in production in CMOS image sensors with via through the backside of the wafer. It will expand to power amplifier modules as well, says the firm.

If via-last will account for a large portion of the market, Yole sees a clear trend toward via-first configurations and smaller via sizes approaching 1-5 µm diameters with 500 to 2000 interconnects per chip.

3-D interposer module is already in small production for several MEMS applications to combine ASIC and MEMS chips together in a true WLP approach. This technology platform is likely to expand rapidly into many SiP application spaces, says the firm.

Several barriers to entry exist for full-scale 3-D IC integration, including test, 3-D EDA design tools, thermal management and 300 mm equipment availability. As contact probe test technologies tend to be more limited with via pad density increasing, they may not scale to future pad dimension pitch shrinks. Moreover, as one portion of the industry is going toward wafer-to-wafer stacking schemes with thin wafers, new requirements are emerging for testing without damage at the wafer level to ensure the electrical functionality of the TSV, RDL and Bump pad structures prior to the stacking of each layer. As a consequence of this, many companies are requesting contact-less testing technologies, says Yole. Technology and equipment are being developed for wafer surface inspection, open/shorts electrical testing and 3-D system level functionality validation.

The landscape is different regarding the availability of 3-D EDA design and thermal management software tools. Yole sees effort in this area; however, the company believes it will be a challenge for the industry to get the tools ready by 2011.

The availability of 300 mm 3-D TSV equipment is a question of time, the company says. First 300 mm tool clusters have been shipped this year for production pilot lines.

TAIPEI – The Foxconn rumor mill has kicked into overdrive with reports the world’s largest ODM might buy fellow Taiwanese ODM Inventec Corp.

VERN SUR SEICHE, FRANCE -- Lacroix Electronique SAS has acquired fellow EMS firm PrehTronics GmbH for an undisclosed amount.

The combined companies will have annual sales over 135 million euros.

WEST BERLIN, NJ – Dynasil Corp. of America has acquired Radiation Monitoring Devices Inc. and specific assets of RMD Instruments LLC for $20 million in cash and stock.

Under terms of the deal, Dynasil will pay $12.5 million in cash and 4.6 million shares of common stock for RMD.